The One Where Mona Lizard Appears
by She-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Psycho
Summary: (Also known as The One Raphael Gets All The Love.) Back in the city, things are stirring and stalking in the sewers... The turtles must now fend for themselves in a hostile city, and try lay low; and deal with Karai, a gallery of old mutants and, if there wasn't enough on their plate, a stranger-this weird gecko girl who, well... Raphael seems to fancy? (2012. Minor language)
1. Prologue: April's Documentary

**A/N: T****his fanfic is based on nowadays CG version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I had this foreword before that was part of a review of Nickelodeon's TMNT(2012-2015 (R) Ciro Nieli, other producers, designers and scriptwriters)**,** but I'll make it short. I love this rendition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, specially what they did with Leo and Donnie. But I'd change one thing: Raphael, he needs a twist or angle. With Raphael, there are gravitating facts that define him: his scorn, his distrust, his dislike for authority mixed with his need to be accepted. Keeping all that we know of this Raphael so far, my aim is to bring back bits of the old Raph from other renditions, make him more conflicted as opposed to a bully, and cover this impression that he doesn't understand himself. And yeah, a lot of that is just making him a big old grump.**

**I've considered that maybe a romantic interest would help bring out the 'grumpy' in Raphael, while keeping the show light without too much of the whinny emo hysterics. Thus this fanfic. So here it is: Mona Lisa - or Mona *Lizard* (I'm so witty...) - in an inclusion that wouldn't annoy me...**

Note: You can skip the prologue. The story begins next chapter.

* * *

**The One Where Mona Lizard Appears**

by She-Who-Is-Not-To-Be-Psycho

**Prologue**: New Reality  
AKA April's Documentary  
AKA The story so far

.

The camera started rolling and the image moved until it came into focus on a freckled red-haired girl, who was obviously holding it on herself. "This is take number one." The sound got screwed by her hand brushing against the camera microphone. "This documentary is about the strange happenings that took place over the last year in New York and the rest of the world. So let's start, shall we?

"Hi. My name is April O'Neil. I was kidnapped by aliens who look like brains and pilot human-looking robots. But I got help, because I was rescued by these guys -"

She disappeared from the screen; the camera was turned around, and four turtle-like creatures show up sitting on a couch - the tall one suddenly self-aware; the one with the blue mask nervously trying to smile while looking away, the smallest one -

"Whazzup!"

"I can't believe you convinced us to do this." The one further away crossed his arms, while the small one posed at the camera, right at the front. April continued:

"These are my friends - the turtles. They are mutated turtles, an accident from one of the aliens experiments. They are teenagers... and, they're ninjas. We'll get back to that...

"They made the difference when the Kraang invaded. Those aliens, they're all over the city even now. They are called the Kraang. Me and my father were their victims. Dad was turned into a giant bat, and then a blob during the last alien invasion, and we barely got to turn him back, along with everyone else - ah, that's thanks to this guy: Donnie."

Suddenly the camera did a zoom in and he was obviously panicking. "That really isn't necessary! I'm fine as is!"

The blue-masked turtle besides him chipped in. "You deserve the recognition. You really did do it." The camera focused on him next, and he noticed, the same way Donnie did. "Eh?"

"This is Leonardo, the leader."

"Ah - no, I -"

"He uses swords - That's right! Why don't you tell us about you training as ninjas?"

"We have had an honorable sensei teach us." Leonardo's demeanor changed as he said this, solemn and as if there was not an ounce of doubt in these words. "A-actually we're doing everything against his teachings by appearing in this video..."

"It's a registry. The people should know about everything you have done. You single-handedly stopped an alien invasion! Twice!"

"While fighting Shredder," the one with red added.

"And evil mushrooms and squirrels!" The one in orange this time. (And behind him, almost imperceptible, Donnie commenting, "Weirdly enough, it's all true, even that...")

"Right! I mean, you fight these guys practically every day," said April. "Somebody should at the very least keep a record of all you have done."

"Yeah, Leo," the enthusiastic one added, "We deserve this! And we might get a lot of awesome friends too! Maybe even fans!"

"You're dreaming, Mikey." The cranky one was all disagreement.

"Oh right, this is Michelangelo, the party guy, and Raphael," April said. Raphael hn-ed as response. Mikey posed like a rap star.

Somebody else made a sound of disgruntlement right then, out of camera. "Yeah. Because anyone would want to see Raph's shinny personality on a movie..."

The camera moved to a boy, who was sulking. "What is it, Casey?"

"I can't believe I'm the only one who's not in your documentary."

"I didn't know you wanted to appear. Of course you can be part of the movie."

His expression immediately turned into a smug smile. "Slick." And he went on to pose too. "Casey Jones here. The turtle's awesomest friend."

"Self-appointed," said Donnie.

"And full of it," Raph agreed.

"Oh, c'mon, of course I'm the cool one! I'm the only one who's not named like a nerd - I mean, except for you, red."

Donnie felt especially insulted by that. "What do you mean, 'nerd'?! Our names come from great European artists. We're chic."

"Pff-yeah. Right. _Donatello_."

"What's that supposed to mean? And how's 'Casey' a better name -?"

"Donnie!" the girl called, successful in getting his attention. "Er, why don't you tell us a bit about your living experience here, in the sewers?"

"Well, ah, yes. Well, we have all the accommodations as last time - a gym, kitchen, a lab - that's always top priority."

"We also got a new super-sweet spot to roller-skate!" said Mikey.

"The gym could do with some improvements..." grunted Raphael.

Donnie continued: "We have everything a mutant turtle of various interests might need. It's not perfect but -"

"But we make do. Everyone worked hard to get this place. And everyone is together, and safe. That's all that matters," completed Leo, who seemed to ground things for them. "Now it feels like we finally got our home back."

"Yeah," cheered Mikey. Go Turtles! We re back on the game!"

And Donnie, "I only wished Splinter were here..."

There was a moment of general gloom on the room.

It was interrupted by the male voice off camera again. "I mean," the image went to Casey, "don't you feel ridiculous with a name like that? It sounds like the name of a donuts shop, or peanut butter. And Donnie sounds like something out of the Italian mafia!"

Donnie growled. "Can you believe this guy?! Figures he wouldn't know a name from the Renaissance classics. "

"He does have a point, Donnie," said Leo. "I mean, because it sounds so Italian...?" he added when he had Donatello glaring up his face.

"Oh! Oh! Donnie, say 'Ya sleepin' with da fishies', Bro!" encouraged Mikey, with a fake Italian accent.

Raphael rolled his eyes. "Shut up. You all have stupid names."

April must have made a face behind the camera, because Donnie had noticed. "What's wrong, April?"

"I was thinking what should we call you?"

"What do you mean? You just did: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo," Raphael counted, pointing at each at a time.

"No, I mean like a way to show in the news."

Leo was the first to talk, "What about 'Heroes from the Sewers'?"

"Lame..." Raph said.

"What's so lame about it?" Leo said, looking ticked.

"Your naming sense is worse than Mikey's."

"Hey!" Mikey said.

"So," Leo was not to be thwarted. "Maybe, the 'Amazing Martial Arts Combat Force'."

"You forgot the 'Monstrosities from the Sewers' bit," said Raph, rolling his eyes.

"That doesn't have to define us," Leo contended.

"Could be something like The Turtles Gang... you know, like a tournament club team name", Donnie suggested.

"Yeah, you only forgot to add junior at the end. Are you kidding with the cheesy names?" said Raphael, head-palming. "We are an ass-kicking turtle group, not a boy band."

"Dude, we'd so rock it as a boy band~" said Mikey, who was pushed away by Raphael.

"Underground Ninja Reptiles Team...?" Donnie offered. "At least it's accurate."

"Artsy Mutant Freak Show," said Casey, to everyone who stared or glared. "I'm just saying. You're all mutant turtles named after Renaissance painters."

"Who like pizza," Mikey chimed in.

April asked, "Well, since Mikey is who usually names things - what would you call yourselves, Mikey?"

He posed as if he had been expecting the question before saying, "Awesome Pizza Fighting Squad!"

Raph hit Mikey at the back of the head. April was quick to add, "We'll leave that for another day..."

There was a cut in the film. It went to black. When the image came back, it was April in the image again, the camera moving as if somebody was manipulating it.

"So, red, what you want to accomplish with this? Also, you know, you are way more fit for appearing on camera."

"C'mon, Casey, don't play, this is serious," she said with a shy smile. "I'm filming this for posterity - and in the interest of my pursuing of my goal of becoming a news anchor. It's either that or a career in computer programming." Her expression turned to worry. "Hopefully it will help me for college..."

"Sure it will, April," said Donnie, just coming up from behind.

"Aw, Donnie, why you cut in on the scene like that for? You completely ruined the take. No one wants to see your ugly mug."

Donatello glared at him.

"Well, it's a good thing you're the one behind the camera then; _your_ face is so ugly it would probably break the lens!"

"Ah, c'mon, you two..." April said, Casey having just appeared too - immediately after, the image went to feet. ("Oh yeah? Try saying that to my face!" "I just did!") Then, the image went out.

And then it went up again. The image of one giant eye, that, as it was moving back, it showed to belong to one Michelangelo. He finished setting the camera in front of a weird improvised scenario filled with cardboard clippings and stuff. His head popped out from behind the table.

"It's the Mikey's puppet show! Today: The impostor kitchen glove and the invasion of the household appliance monsters! Also featuring: the romance between Spatula and Spoon~" He suddenly stopped, one hand holding a spork and another a coffee jar, "Or should I start with how many smoke-bomb eggs I can put in my mouth? No, wait! I should start with my turtle yoga classes." His hand moved towards the camera and the image went to black again.

When it came in once more, it was Mikey again, this time speaking from the couch, laid back (or he would have been if for a split of second we had not seen him dropping a stick hastily - that is, the stick he used to turn the camera in from that distance, before posing and acting relaxed).

"So, Michelangelo here, in the zone. Follow these easy steps for smoothness absolute like a turtle-do -"

"Mikey -"

"ARGH! Oh it's you, Donnie."

"It's that... my training bo?"

"...No?"

He rolled his eyes. "Did you wax the Shellracer 2.0 like I told you?"

"Can't do, bro. I'm in my chillin' time."

"You better not be messing with April's camera."

Mikey was up and gone next second. "Gotta go, wax the Shellracer -"

"Mikey!" Donatello followed behind.

And then there was nothing but the silent image of the couch. Then, murmurs of voices coming from a distance, growing near... Then someone came to the camera - a body, and then another, headless - that is, the heads not within the canvas of the image, but from the sound of it, it was the angry one, and Leo, the leader. The conversation had already started from before, and they only stopped in front of the couch when one called the other, "Raph. Stop and listen to me for a second! We need to talk about this."

"Maybe I don't want to talk." He stopped, nonetheless.

"I get it, alright? From all the times you told me... I had the responsibility, it was my stupid idea. It's my fault. My leadership got us going all the wrong - if it wasn't for my lousy decisions, Splinter -"

"Stop right there. Leo, you probably should hear this now that I can say it... I don't blame you." Raph turned, but almost imperceptibly.

"Don't blame me?! How can you not blame me?! From all the times you've given me grief, if there was ever a time to blame me -"

"Well, I don't. I know how I am but not today. I've thought back on that day many times and I know if it as me, I'd have done everything exactly the same."

Leo seemed disgruntled even more so by that. "From all the stupid times, you decide to cut me some slack now?! I _want_ you to get angry! I want you to blame me! I blame myself!"

"Well, tough luck, Leo, because I don't. I blame myself."

"Oh, just perfect -" They had moved out of scene, with the sounds fading, but you could still get some murmuring. "Then why, Raph? You insist in going off on your own. What are you doing? Why the solo act?"

"I - it's... not about you. I can't be around you right now."

Leo stopped, and growled. "What, you're suddenly better than us?"

"No, that's not what I -"

"Then what was it?" Leo called out. "Talk to us."

Raphael pulled away as Leo tried to move over. "I just need to be alone." He sounded pained.

"We all are coping. We need to stick together. More than ever. We only got one another."

"I know that. You don't understand. You're better off without me."

"Is this about you getting angry -"

"That's not it. Not in the way you think. It's just, since that time with Splinter... It's all wrong."

Leo's manner was cutting. "How?"

"I just... After what happened in that place, I... I didn't get angry. In fact, I thought it was strange, I knew I had to be most angry of all now, but it was like I had forgotten how to be angry... Or maybe I was still in denial, and expecting Splinter to sprint out of a rooftop or... or behind a door, saying something wise - saying we need to do something, just _be_ reassuring. Then I turned to you three. And, it was like it wasn't you. You were so angry, like how _I_ was supposed to be. And then you started talking revenge, saying things like killing the Shredder."

Leo's eyes grew colder, "What had changed, Raph? After all that he's done to us, you know that he deserves it."

"That doesn't matter. That was never the issue! Splinter wouldn't want us to be - wouldn't want _you_ to be..."

The tension was high. Leo was angry. "To be _what_, Raph?"

"Splinter wouldn't want you to turn into me!"

Leonardo seemed about to retort something when he turned to the camera; he must have noticed the red light that meant it was recording. He went to it, and the image went dark again.

... A new time, the camera was turned on. The image was of Raphael. A sad Raphael. He had an odd pensive look, staring up front at the camera without really looking.

"Right. I just need to say this out loud. After I just I watched that conversation with Leo and, it's not like... Damn it, I don't know how to say it. Even I don't know... How did it all turn out this way...?" He paused, and sighed. "Splinter isn't here. Normally I would talk to him - I would talk to him about this and anything. But he isn't here. Actually, I don't know if I would be like I am right now if it wasn't for... " He chuckled sadly, then looked up, serious again. "Well, I guess I was lucky that way... yeah. I don't know if...I don't know if this is going to make any sense to you, but... just bear with me.

"My name is Raphael. I'm gonna tell you a different story."

.

* * *

**A/N: And so it begins…**

**Because I seem to have mixed things up, disregard the previous note here. Lastly, I'm just gonna say I am very much looking forwards to see what the authors are going to do with the new series and all this I'm saying is just my appreciation, if not wish-fulfillment… **

**Over and above all, this is just me trying to endure hiatus…**


	2. Raph's Moody Days, Part 1

**A/N: Do not own. (R)Nickelodeon, Ciro Nieli, Joshua Sternin and J.R. Ventimilia. *fangirl squeal* A word of warning, this one contains a bit of emo!Raph. It gets lighter on latter chapters. A****nd a maybe slightly politically incorrect Michelangelo. Which I consider the authors *hinthint(… as if)* might like doing too, to get those two out of their status as purely comic relief (... look at me and my hinthintment... *sigh* I so wished they did take these ideas from me. They wouldn't even need to pay me! I just want to see it happen… *mumble*)**

**… But that's not to say Donatello and Leonardo should be ignored from the script-writing, right? Because they were the big surprise in this 2012-2014 rendition and should stay their best - Raph and Mikey were the favorites in almost all versions of the TMNT. This one finally concentrated in Leo and Donnie's finer print - and it was AWESOME for that. (*fangirl squeal encore*) For the first time Donnie is my favorite character! To quote sheilamgagneva from Tumblr,**

**"It's all about Salty Donatello"**

* * *

**Chapter One**: Raph's Moody Days

.

They were in the outskirts of the city, near the bridge - only the two. The air was stiff and smelled of fish. He missed even that stinking smell. Finally, he was out there in the city again.

"C'mon, Casey. If you want to do this, you gotta speed up."

"Huff... You know, if we were on solid ground instead of the roof I'd make you eat my dust."

"Well, you aren't so buckle up, slowpoke. It's annoying enough dragging you around. And you better keep it a secret from the guys. I don't want Leo on my back about going off on my own."

"Maybe if you hid your oddly-shaped bald green head. Your red mask barely cuts it. You should get yourself a cool disguise like my cool ass death hokey mask."

"Says you. I wouldn't be caught dead in that."

The turtle dropped to a lower roof, and stood on the ledge. Casey came right behind.

"Huff. This is killing. I agreed to this vigilante-slash-mutagen search thing because I thought it would be cool. I'm covered in sweat..."

"And we have a winner."

The two spotted what appeared to be a common gang gathering under a light post. One of them had a purple or pink backpack in his hand - a girl bag; obviously stolen.

"Who are them?"

"Purple Dragon. Oh man, I hadn't seen these guys in a while. I'll hardly break a sweat."

"Heh. They look easy."

"You kidding? They are level 1 easy. It will be a fair fight for you."

"Ha ha."

Without dwelling any more on it, Raphael jumped into the fight at once. He landed right behind the lot, too.

"Ok, guys. Hand in what you stole and no one gets too hu-"

Before the Purple Dragon finished turning around, Raph was out of sight. Ninja style. There were no signs of anyone. Of course, turning the corner, there he was, Raph, pressed against the wall hysterically.

"What's with you?" Casey came from behind, after dropping from a fire stairs unapologetically noisily.

"There's a girl here," Raph responded ridiculously frantic.

"Oh? Is she cute?"

"What?! I don't know! She was wearing a hood. I think she's the one getting mugged."

Casey looked in the general direction of the adjacent alleyway. "So?"

Raph grabbed him by the collar. "You know I can't be seen by regular civilians! I shouldn't be seen by anyone at all." It wasn't even the normal 'can't be seen' drill. This was serious. They shouldn't even be out here. He poked his head around the corner trying to get a better look. "We have to do this the stealth way."

They had only until the Purple Dragon gathered enough guts to actually look around the corner.

"Aren't you a little too worried by this? There's a girl, so what?"

"What part of 'ninjas can't be seen' don't you get?" Raphael added irritated, "especially when you're a mutated big ninja turtle, it's common sense."

"That's alright, Raph. You don't need to come up with excuses. I get it; you are girl-shy!"

"What?!" You could hear the indignation from the first syllable, but whatever could follow up, never was. The light of a flashlight hit him square on the face. And they heard someone from up ahead shout in badly spoken English - and some might say offensively stereotypical accent, "It's them! It's the turtles!"

Raphael groaned.

"No worries, Raph, you can stay here. That just means it's more for Casey Jones."

The sound of "Casey, wait!" did nothing to stop Jones from speeding forwards, holding his jokey stick to the war-cry of "GOONGALA!", and for him to start sending jokeypods to everyone and everything on sight. The opportune cover of Raph sending ninja stars from the shadows when the next dude came at him with a baseball bat didn't stop Casey from engaging in a one-on-one sword duel with a Purple Dragon holding a stick. "Raph, what're you doing hiding like a mouse?! Help!"

Raph himself only showed himself to throw that one off, partially covered by a smoke bomb. "Do I always need to come save your hide, Jones?"

"Ow, Raph? Don't look now but, isn't that mutagen?" That one Purple Dragon was carrying a glowy vial of the green stuff.

This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it. That was one of the things that didn't sit well with a half-arsed attempt at a stealth fight and hostage situation. It was the second time Raphael mentally hit himself from jumping on into a fight without checking the surroundings.

Casey spun forwards giving a war-cry and a swing on his jokey stick. And Raph looked up just in time to see the mutagen vial slip from a hand. He made a break for it to intercept the flying vial with a sai and landed it on floor, then in the same motion, intercepted a knife, rejoining the fight. "Casey, you idiot, you're going to get mutated if you're not careful."

"Well, if you weren't so busy acting like a chicken -" A block.

"Who're you calling chicken -"

It sounded like someone had kicked the vial of mutagen into the air again. Of course. Everything that could go wrong, was going to go Murphy on his shell, wasn't it? The smoke was already clearing off. Raphael saw if barely the silhouette of the human-girl in a hoody. Her face was not seen, only their eyes that didn't meet but for instant, and she went out of sight as Casey came in. But he got the gist of it. "Oh, screw it."

He put his sai away and started forwards.

"Casey, I'm leaving the Purple Dragon to you!"

"What? Hey, wait!"

His last smoke bomb got sent. He heard the glass sound of the vial bouncing around the alley, a girl scream.

"Watch out!"

Raph launched himself forwards, grabbed the blur that was girl and disappeared on the smoke, just before the vial smashed on ground, its content spilled on the drain...

It was dark under the opening of the sewer. He was still breathing heavily and the girl was still clinging to his arms. It felt weird. Soft. He thought he managed not to get her spilled but... Well, I guess screw the secrecy thing, there's no chance he can hide now. And anyways, he saved her, there's no chance she'll expose them now, he thought as he sensed the girl starting to stir and react. Huh guess he should say something. "Don't worry, you're safe now. Those guys don't even know where's here. Huh, you oka -" She looked up. They couldn't see each other's faces well, but yes, Raphael saw the look of horror that crossed her face. He heard the fright in her scream. "No! Get away!" resonated in the cavernous sewer and in his mind, as the girl violently pushed him, got to her feet and ran. She ran towards the darkness. He tried to say 'wait'. He tried to think of going after her. He stared after her...

He breathed out.

And turned back.

* * *

He went to his dorm without stopping and slammed the door shut. He dropped and his weight bounced on his bed, making him groan, as if the very gesture made him mad. He lied down there staring at the ceiling and then the wall. He wasn't feeling like a happy trooper. That much was certain. Actually, he should have known this would happen. What other way could a girl react to... to him? Tch. It was a wonder April didn't just ran off the first time she saw them, and even she wasn't all that normal. Well, whatever. Just who cares about what she...

He didn't feel like finishing that train of thought.

His head bumped on something in the dark. He still needed to feel his way around the new lair, and he resented it. The guys had already been preparing this place, but it still missed so much of the old home in the sewers, it was upsetting. The dojo was nothing more than an empty space, like a cheap gym, and most of the furniture lying around was just trash they found in the wastelands.

Raph remembered back then he thought the new lair wasn't so bad. Now, it completely annoyed him. It was a reminded of everything that was not-good with the whole situation. The city dead, the humans hiding, the Krag still lurking around, not really defeated… and them having to hide, while criminals and worse ran amuck like they owned the place. 'Couldn't even get a decent place for themselves. And his room was especially depressing. Maybe it was the fact that it looked so empty, or that it was small, or that he felt prisoner of these four walls some times.

Well, he did go out tonight, and look how well that turned out! Frustrated in his fight with the Purple Dragon and chased away by some hysteric girl who wouldn't even look at him as anything other than… Whatever. He had better things to do.

It wasn't so much he decided to go down but that he resisted staying there. The first to notice him was his older brother. "Hey, Raph. Where were you? You missed practice."

"Hey, Raph!" Mikey said, coming from behind the couch with a popcorn bag hat. "I kicked Donnie's shell soooo hard today."

"You missed quite the spar," Leo agreed.

Raph shrugged, playing along. "I'm sure it couldn't have been that good, since I wasn't there."

Donnie had just arrived and put down a bucket of water on the floor, glaring daggers. "Well, look who's back! You know, Raph, the next time you conveniently decide to skip practice, don't. I know you did it on purpose because it was _your_ turn on dojo cleaning duty. Why else would you miss on a chance to punch something!"

"Oh, right… Sorry about that."

"You should be! It's not nice to drop your responsibilities on your good brother."

"It _is_ weird for you to miss practice," added Leo with a suspicious look and an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah? Well, I didn't feel like it."

Leo looked at him strange, but Mikey was oblivious. "Hey, Raph, want to catch a movie with us? We're watching Hideous Monster from New York, Part II. I heard it has this cool scene with the girl running from the monster in the sewers."

He felt his temple twitch and something tug at his chest.

"I think I'll pass."

He tried to leave but there it was Mikey again. "I got recommendations from jonas455, kittenlove1890 and ninjamunchin12."

Raphael got forced to push his face away to pass. "Anything recommended by someone who calls themselves 'ninjamunchin' can't be good. Why do you want to see a stupid movie about monsters anyways? You see them every day when we fight the Kraang and Shredder."

"It's a class D classic! The memes are all over the net, like that with the guy and the dude..." Mikey sort of explained.

"And the director is very famous too for its weird sci-fi themes," added Donnie.

"Whatever. Sounds like a stupid idea."

"C'mooon, Raph. Just admit you're curious ~"

"Sure, whatever. I'm getting something to drink."

He went to the kitchen to grab a juice. He came back to see them starting the movie. Donnie and Mikey were discussing the plot.

"I must admit I was a little hesitant about the premise of the story. I mean, a lonely creature who lives under the city, who gets rejected by the girl, even after he saves her."

"It's based off a real story."

"I doubt that."

Everybody went silent from the surprise of Raph suddenly punching a training sandbag, rather violently. He glared at the deflated punch-bag for a second or two before deciding, "Guess I feel like training after all." He took a sip of his also-somewhat-trashed can, and moved to leave.

Leo exchanged a look with the others. "Raph, is there anything wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. Mind your own business."

He moved away, turned the corner and entered the kitchen again. When opening the fridge, hidden by the door, his glare morphed into a sad expression. The last thing they heard of him was the sound of the door of his room slamming closed.

"Well, that was weird," summarized Donnie.

* * *

So was the start of a flipping horrible week. He was moody, stumbling on places, destroying their scarce trash furniture... And cursing. A lot of cursing. There were ascending episodes of him punching walls for no reason at all, and lashing out at his brothers. He just wasn't able to keep himself calm any more. He was... angry, all the time. It didn't help Mikey kept eating his snacks. Not that he'd ever admit it. And then, today's incident at practice...

In general, they knew they ought to leave him alone when he was like this. He would get over it eventually - that was the general understanding... well, that wouldn't hold. So, it was expected that *he* would show up.

"So, are you going to tell us what this is about?"

"Leave me alone, Leo. I'm not in the mood."

Yeah, like that has ever deterred him. "What's with you, Raph? You haven't been coming out of your room lately, and now you act like this."

"Like what?" he bit back, daring him.

"You're holding out on us since the other day," Leo insisted. He put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Raph. We can't help you if you don't talk to us."

A pained look came to his face.

"You don't get it."

"What?"

He was starting to feel like _that_ again. He felt like he could _punch_ something! He knew he shouldn't be talking about it! Darn it, why did he have to be so _pushy_?! Yes, he was a little irritable, so _what_? But what did they expect if they didn't grant him his privacy?! And, like pushing it would make it in any way better.

"Raph…"

Raphael closed his fists and clenched his teeth. "You had to talk it out, didn't you? You just had to say it, didn't you? Fine, do you want to know what's wrong? I'll tell you what's wrong!"

It was the holing up-not able to go out, and the annoyingly cramped new lair. It was the fact they hadn't yet found Splinter. It was, the humans and mutants and their shying away and running away and -!

"Hey Raph, I -"

He pushed his hand away. "What's the point of acting the good guy! We might as well stalk them and jump at them from the sewers for all they know."

"What're you talking about?"

"This!" he pointed at his own face. "How can any of them see us like anything other than horrible monsters? We're weird, mutated freaks! That's all I am, to any of them. Another hideous thing to ridicule. And nothing we do it going to change that. "

"They are not all like that, and even if they were... But why does it matter?"

Because!

"You don't get it, do you?"

"Get what?" asked Leonardo, feeling irritable himself.

"We're alone! We're always going to be alone. Even with all other mutated freaks out there now, other than the few odd cases, you know they have a human form to get back to -"

He wanted it. He wanted _that,_ and he couldn't have it.

"Even Splinter could turn human, and anyone, when Donnie makes more retro-mutagen! That's not us, though. We'll always be the weird monster. You know what? Forget it, I -"

For a second, he stopped, as if realizing the situation, the who-to, and looked - actually looked - at his brother in the eye. It took everything he had not to let his eyes betray him.

"I... Sorry, Leo. You're the last person I should be ranting about this..."

He remembered that one time. He had caught sight of Leo punching a wall, looking hurt as ever, hissing _"where -is- she?"_

They had looked everywhere for Karai, and now the searching was a lot less easy. He remembered wanting to go and say something to him, but not knowing what.

His brother knew the pain of feeling alone, and of wanting something out of reach. Maybe more than any of them. All their lives they had had things dangled in front of them, never getting them. They knew it, they weren't stupid! And here he was, bitching about it. Why was he the only one bitching about it!? It took everything he had not to let his eyes betray him.

Leo's eyes lit and he frowned with a weird, almost pained smile. "What are you saying? If you can still worry about that, then I don't have to worry - Yeah, well, I've thought about it too. But you know, it's not really like that. I mean, at least we have each other."

"Yeah..." Raphael said, not really feeling it. In fact it just made him feel worse. "Don't mind me, I'm just being... I just need some space. I need to be alone."

* * *

Raph was turning on his bed that night. At exactly 3am, he was alert because of one of those annoying minor things - a falling soda can from his side table. He was awake now. And it felt like it would be hell before he could go back to sleep. He stood up, and left the room. Next came the sound of a toilet flushed.

The fridge door opened. Raph got some chips, which he put on the table, and milk - the chips bag had disappeared by then - and glass. He sat on the table, poured the milk and drank... except now he noticed the missing snack. He looked under the table and up, and caught the flashing sight of something, which agitated (and decreased the level of) his glass of milk -

Raphael froze in place, feeling a lot more awake, and on guard. It had been something small, moving very fast. While he was turning, slowly, pretending he was looking away, that thing came again, but now toppled the glass over in panic, and Raphael reacted -

A blurry flash of images followed. The sound of the chip bag gave the other person away and Raph threw ninja stars in that general direction. He still did not get a good look, but the shadow dropped something - an opened bag of cookies they seemed to have been eating from before. And now it was making a run for it.

"Oh no you don't! _GUYS!_" he shouted while charging forwards towards the thief.

Some good thing about his brothers was that they had a light sleep. "Huh? What?" Donnie was already poking his head out of his room. Leonardo was even up and armed in the corridor, while Mikey was up but zombified in a ridiculous sleeping elf hat. "What is it, Raph?" asked Leo.

He did not stop as he explained, "An intruder! He has been stealing our food! But he's not getting away, he's not."

"Wait –"

It was one thing to say that and another doing it. The intruder was fast. It pained Raphael to admit it, but it might be faster than him. There was something unnatural in the way it moved too. He had to have been trained. The Foot? But they wouldn't steal food from all things, considering -

"Woah!" Something had just swished and whipped from behind the silhouette barely missing his head, just when Raph was closing in. So that's how you wanna play...

He withdrew his sai from his back, and turned to face this, but by this time he couldn't see the shadow. The others had caught up.

"Where is it?" Donnie asked.

"I lost him, but he has to be here somewhere."

"Really? " said Mikey, who looked half in dreamland but still sounded skeptic. "You sure you weren't dreaming? You can be so paranoid -"

He yelped when his older brother bared his teeth like an angry hound.

"Guys! " A red-headed girl had joined them, wrapping a sleeping robe around her. "What is it? What was all that noise? "

A flushing Donnie answered, "A thief. Raph spotted it. We chased it."

"So, where is it?"

"It was here just a second ago," Raph insisted. "I saw it in the kitchen."

"Whoever it was, he's gone," said Leo. "I think we need to have a meeting - and Donnie, I've something for you."

* * *

Casey Jones, it happens, was the last to wake up and show up. Not by own volition, too. "Man, it's impossible to get a decent sleep with you guys," he said signaling the arguing group of turtles.

"I don't know what are we waiting for! Let's just find and punch the lights out of that bastard."

"Hold on," Leo said to Raph, who was more quick-tempered than usual. "We don't know what we're facing. It could be a trap."

"What?! It's just a common thief!"

"A common thief stealing from a bunch of mutants in the sewers?" asked April, sounding doubtful.

Raph crossed his arms. "So, it's a common thief with no standards."

"You know what this means, right?" Mikey gasped, suddenly dramatic. "It must have been the thief that ate the last slice of pepperoni pizza!"

Donnie rolled his eyes. "Everybody knows that was you, Mikey."

"Aw, man! I wished we could go get some pizza right now…"

Leo's scaly brow furrowed. "The city is not safe for us right now. If possible, we should not make contact with anyone. Most importantly, we mustn't be seen. Shredder's men could be anywhere, and we are not completely safe from the threat of the Kraang." He looked at the youngest brother in the eye to show him he was serious.

"Yeah… I know…" Mikey pouted from his position, face prompted over the couch arm dejectedly.

"Got it!" Donnie said triumphant, and they all turned to him to watch the screen of his computer.

The video image, of rather bad quality, shaky, was of a weird slithering movement on the opening of a sewer tunnel. It was a tail. And then something else owning that tail, and it had scales.

"Cool! It's a human-lizard thingy!" Casey Jones commented, coming from behind. It wasn't more than a shadow, though.

"What the - was that what you were doing instead of chasing the thief? A home video?!" said Raph, growing irritated. Leo scowled.

"So that's the thief," said April.

"It's… Leatherhead!"

They all turned to Mikey.

"It has to be him, right?" Mikey decided, now hugging the screen, "Buddy, I missed you."

"I don't know about that…" said Donnie. "But I can't believe you got to record this, Leo, in only those few seconds. Way to make good use of the T-phone." Raph grunted.

Mikey was relentless. "C'mon, it HAS to be Leatherhead! Who else is so scaly and lizardy?"

"But, I don't know, doesn't it look smaller?" said Leo.

"Maybe he went on a diet," Donnie offered.

"Yeah, and developed an appetite for milk and cookies." Raph rolled his eyes. Were there any self-respecting alligator mutants left in this city?

"We have to go meet up! I bet he's looking all over for us! Who knows how lonely he must have been all this time?"

"What do you think, Leo?" said Donnie, turning away from the teary-eyed Michelangelo to the now pensive leader.

"On the very least we should check it out. If it's Leatherhead, he might need help."

"Finally! C'mon already, we're wasting time. All the talking is getting on my nerves," said Raph, already moving for the exit. "Let's just find the idiot and give him a beat up."

"No way I'm missing this. I'm going!" said Casey.

"I'll stay back if you don't mind," said April, tugging on her sleep robe with a yawn.

"Don't worry, guys. We'll find Leatherhead. We all know the sewers like the back of our shells!" declared Mikey.

"I told you, it might not be Leather -" Leo sighed. "Ok, just proceed with caution and report back whatever you see."

* * *

"Here's Donnie. I mean, Brains to Leader. Do you copy?"

"I'm here. Any news?"

"Prankster to Brains. Dude, it's so fun to talk with codenames! What we should call Raph?"

"We should call him Mr Grumpyshell. It suits him."

"Do you want me to pound you, Donnie?!"

"Alright, guys, stop goofing around over the T-phones. Did anyone see it? Have you seen anything?"

"Nothing here."

"Same."

"Nop!"

"Remember the plan, guys. If you find the mutant, report immediately to us. Don't fight it. I'm talking to you, Raph."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"Well, you have a history of violent impulses..." said Donnie over the communicator. He could hear Raph growl from his side.

Leo continued. "We are lying low. That was the plan. Being out in the open is too dangerous… and it looks now like even the sewers are."

"You think it could be this is _not_ the only mutant in the sewers with us?" Donnie pondered it. "It would make sense. Any mutant that wasn't taken by the Kraang or transformed back by the retro-mutagen rain from the _Ark of Mutagen part I _plan would seek refuge somewhere underground, where they would cause the least panic… But there's no reason to think they would be hostile. They're just transformed humans!"

"We don't know that. We don't know how much things have changed in the city since we last were here," Leo said. "The Foot still controls most of the city, inside and out. A whole bunch of other unknown mutants rampage the street. We just made it back, we don't want more troubles. At least until Donnie has his _Ark of Mutagen II_ plan ready. Leader out."

Raph finished communication with the others and moved ahead. History of violent impulses his shell! And what's with this noble speech while sending them to a weird goose chase. Everyone just went a different direction. Couldn't they have come up with a better plan?

Right now he arrived an opening to a room - the drains all converged in this one place, water falling like an artificial cascade from different tunnel ends. The water looked cleaner here. Almost nice to swim on. Sweet spot. He had to remember if he ever met a girl to bring her here. Yeah, right, where was he going to meet a –

Whatever. The problem now was finding the squirmy little thief. Raphael was counting on that he would be the first to find this guy. Eating his chips, drinking his milk from _his_ glass, thinking he could do that from just under his nose - He was going to make him pay!

And as luck would have it, graciously, he did happen to be the first to find the guy. Just around the corner. It was a dark figure at the end of a sewers corridor, seen only because of the contrast of light coming from up ahead. The sound of the chip bag gave him away. This guy, he was slim, his arms full with food he had obviously stolen from them. One of the stolen goods slipped from the thief's arms and he tried to catch it in mid air, but couldn't, obviously too conscious or too scared of Raph, who stepped forwards menacingly clutching his sai.

"I got you now," Raph singsong-ed, and he might have admitted he was delighted that he was causing this level of terror in this guy. He was practically shivering like a little girl.

But suddenly, the guy dropped all pretenses - literally dropped the food, and Raph had to do a double take, surprised by the fact that this... this _creature_, whatever it was, had made such a jump, bouncing on walls. So much so that Raphael didn't detect that it was coming at him. The kick hit him square in the chest, and sent Raphael flying several feet into sewer waters. That mutant… had him sit on a gutter, swirling who-knows-_what_ around him.

Any thoughts of offering leniency towards this thief left him a second after tasting that dump water in his mouth – and then, any thoughts about _not_ having any leniency left him too, for an entirely different reason. He looked up. He froze.

And he saw the silhouette against the opening light, before it banished behind the wall.

* * *

"Aw, man, I'm worn!" said Mikey, dropping on the couch and stretching, only to shrink back to size and cover his nose. "Eugh, Donnie, you reek!"

"I fell on the decontamination plant depuration bowl. It's close by, and I thought whatever was out there, it might be hiding inside the building. And… I had a little accident."

"Eugh, gross, man!"

"Yeah, well... How did it go in your end?"

"I'm bummed out, man. I tried the T-phone but Leatherhead doesn't respond. I mean, it's weird, right? If it wasn't Leatherhead, it had to be some sort of... Lizardman."

"Tough luck," said Casey, eating peanut butter from a spoon comfortably from another couch.

"Weren't you looking for the mutant too?" asked Donnie.

"Yeah… but then I figured, if it was a threat, it would come back and someone should be back here." Donnie considered it and was starting to fall in line with that logic. "Besides, it was too late at night to be chasing over a random mutant." Figures.

"Sounds like none of us had any luck," said Leonardo, rubbing his neck, just in time to see Raphael walk in on a daze, looking a little weird. "Hey, Raph, did you find it?"

"Yeah..."

Everyone went quiet.

"Dude! No way!" said Mikey.

"Why didn't you call us?" asked Leo.

"It was Leatherhead, right?"

"What was it?" asked Donnie.

"Come on, how was it, the monster?" asked Casey.

Raphael, with the same look in his eyes, said: "Beautiful."

Three perplexed turtles stared. Casey said, "...What?!"

* * *

**N/A: Yeah, I changed the ending, to something from a bit earlier… (Yeah, I know. Horrible cliffhanger. But the better cliffhanger isn't until ten pages more of fic so, I'm making a cut here to ease your reading experience.) Next chapter, things get complicated...**


	3. Raph's Moody Days, Part 2

**A/N: Do not own. (R)Nickelodeon, Ciro Nieli, Joshua Sternin and J.R. Ventimilia. ANNOUNCEMENT: I reworked the first chapter (Raph's Moody Days) a bit. Sorry for the confusion, but it was just not doing it for me. (Just like the summary – I keep changing that thing…) Well, I hadn't got a single review since I posted this so, it might be all the same to you. (Does this qualify as soliciting for reviews? Pity guilt-tripping reviewers much? I'm actually pretty happy, though, that I got over 100 views in less than a week. That's gotta be good, right?)**

**…****So, yeah. This chapter starts two scenes ago, when the group hasn't yet left the lair to look for lizard girl. Sorry to the 11 or so people who actually got to the second chapter… Still, the 'beautiful' line feels a bit better a cliffhanger than the 'side of the sewers' thing. Plus it's easier on the eyes this way, and it's not like last chapter didn't have any action. Think of that one as a second introduction. (Plus I get to use my 'better cliffhanger' here *is happy*.)**

**Also, how do you feel about giving April a more leading role? Later chapters, though… Some Apritello, on the side. *ehem* It's all about Salty Donatello.**

* * *

Chapter Two: Raph's Moody Days Part II

(A.K.A. Boy Turtle Meets Lizard Girl, Take Two)

.

Three perplexed turtles (plus one human) went "Huh?!" and stared at him weird. Mikey asked.

"Duuude, you like Lizardman?"

Donnie stepped forwards clearing his throat, "Well, we just want to say, we support you, whatever your choices –"

Raph snapped out of it and hit him on the head. "No, idiots, it's Lizard _woman_."

Leonardo smirked. "Oooh, that explains it... Not that there would be anything wrong with -"

"A girl lizard! Cool!" Mikey said, echoing Casey's similar expression.

"She must be another victim of the mutagen," reasoned Donnie.

"What happened? Where's she?" asked Leo.

Raph answered rather idly, "Eh? Oh. She threw a back kick at me and I lost her."

…He knew he should have worded that better. He didn't like the way Casey's and Mikey's faces were contorting.

"Dude, a girl kicked your butt!" Mikey said it.

"No way! That's just so _perfect_," laughed Casey.

Donnie joined in, "Must have been a very beautiful if you let her get away with that."

"W-wha?!" said Raph, growing red and coming more high-pitched than what he would have liked. "Don't be an idiot. That's not how it went!"

"Now I really want to meet her!" added Mikey.

"It was a fluke! She got a lucky punch in. I'll show you. Next time I see her, I'm going to -"

"What, you'd hit a girl?" asked Mikey, leaning to look at him in the eye disapprovingly.

"Wait, I never said -"

"Tch. Not gallant at all, Raph," said Donnie. Casey was still laughing his heart out.

"You're all a bunch of clowns," Raph grumbled. "While we are all here, she's still out there in the sewers with _our_ food."

"Should you be saying that, since you are the one that let her get away?" Donnie teased.

"Wha?! What was I supposed to do, drag her in a bag?!" Raphael made his best impression of a bulldog growl and turned around. "Fine! If you're not serious about this, I'm gonna look for her by myself."

He was not so far gone he could not still hear Leonardo's taunt, "As if you didn't hope for that from the beginning."

He couldn't help the blush that came to his cheeks. He was thankful he had his back to his brothers, but still stumbled pathetically and self-evidently.

"Should we leave him to it, then? Some alone time?" Donnie wasn't going to let this go.

"No way! I want to meet lizard girl too!" Mikey chimed in from behind.

Leo chuckled. "C'mon, before he hurts himself walking into something."

They were coming. No way would he get rid of them that easily.

* * *

"…"

From the dark came the whimpers. It was an involuntary sound, stifled only barely. 'Had to listen in_._ You could hear the ragged breathing, in the total silence. Every gulp of air was too painfully loud. _Breathe in. Breathe out… Breathe in… Brea_—

Another whimper escaped her, from her position curled up in a ball, in the dark of that one indentation in the sewer walls…

* * *

"So, Raph… How did this lizard girl look like?"

Donnie started that conversation, the four of them carefully roaming the sewer passageways.

Raphael was apprehensive. "…Why?"

"Well, lizards are not native to the New York fauna. Though there are some popular urban myths – and, I mean, if you can find an alligator in the sewers..."

"It's no weirder than turtles in the sewers," Raph reasoned.

"True," Donnie conceded, and added in a tone loads more sly, "But then again, _cute_ lizards are even rarer."

His brothers snickered and Raph growled. "I knew this was somehow coming to this."

"Well, you really walked into that one," said Leo.

"You know what? Forget I said a thing! She's probably not all that. I only got a glimpse of her in the dark anyways. I bet I'm all wrong and she's like bad-looking, with zits and a big snout."

"Dude, who cares about that!" said Mikey, practically skipping ahead.

Leo had to be the one to bring focus back to the discussion. "OK, guys. As amusing as Raph's little crush is, and it sure is amusing –" ("Hey! ") "- We shouldn't lower our guard. It doesn't mean that she's not one of Shredder's men. And she did steal from us. "

"Maybe she was just hungry," Donnie offered.

"How many more retarded observations do you plan to have?" Raph spat, grunting at the both of them.

"Oh, c'mon, Raph! It's not like you _want_ her to be our enemy," Mikey teased. "She just must have gotten scared by your angry, unfriendly face! I'm sure she'd have asked nicely if she knew you were harmless."

"Maybe next time, you can invite her for dinner," Leo taunted.

"And did you always have preference for the *_Lepidosauria*_ species, or is this a new thing?" added Donnie.

"Burn, man!" Mikey laughed as if he understood the joke, high-fiving Donatello.

"Shut up, brainiac. Here. This is the place," Raphael said, stopping.

They were standing before the opening to that water fall room.

"This is where you saw her?"

"That's what I said, genius."

Donnie glared at Raph. "Well, this is a dead end. Whatever she was, she had had to bolt back where we came. We didn't see her on the way here, so I suggest we look in the vicinity and -"

Something moved behind them. "You felt that, right?" Donnie said, fretting. Raph took out his sai.

Two more sounds followed, from some distance apart. All of them went into fighting positions.

"That was fast," Leo observed.

"I didn't even see her," said Donnie, still frantic.

They stopped and waited on tense alert, listening in, and hands on their weapons handles - only Raph was armed, darkly cheerful. Something passed by in the shadows and –

"Wha -" Raph had only begun to protest when he felt the sai getting yanked from his right hand, to a disgruntled "Hey!" and Mikey's yelping.

"Dudes! Did you see THAT?! It was a -" he stopped. "This is soooo creepy," he said as he sensed the swooshing sound coming from the shadows of the sewer in the silence.

They all waited, even Raph, who was actually concentrating ahead. He saw something. A contour of a tail… He smirked. "You got lucky last time. It won't be that easy now."

"Raph, wait!"

Suddenly, he lunged forwards, just as the shadow started to move. It had a _tail_ alright. And a slick green body, long and strong legs, no hair in her head. Not as fast as he remembered. He surprised her when he leaped to the right to the sewer water duct, splashing all around. She turned towards him, right at the entrance of another tunnel. Big yellow eyes that popped up against the dark of her skin stared back at him. He wished he wasn't so stupidly happy about this. Almost too happy to dodge that kitchen knife-throwing in his general direction. "Hey! What's your damage?!"

"- _my side of the sewers_."

Raphael was thrown back, as if he hadn't expected this delusion of his to talk, even if it was with that glaringly obvious hostile manner. Something itched at the back of his mind. _Very _much in the back. She wasn't running now; they had her surrounded. She stood - held Raph's sai in one hand, as a weapon to defend herself. The streaks in her chest heaved in and out from her heavy breathing.

"Fascinating. A gecko mutant!" said Donnie, coming right behind. "Geckos live in dark, damp places. No wonder it would choose the sewer to -"

He barely dodged the jumping mutant dropping with a kick to his head.

"...maybe later." He brought his staff to fend her off.

"Wait!" insisted Leonardo. "Guys, stop, we don't want to hurt her!"

"Tell that to her!" said Donnie.

Raphael was lunging forwards.

"Don't let her escape!" he shouted when she moved to the darker area from their earlier fight.

Mikey was already in place, blocking the exit but holding his hands as a sign of peace. "Hey, hold on! We don't want to - WHOA!"

He felt the earth move under his feet and he next was on his back. Raph threw ninja stars that lodged in the sewer walls - she threw something herself: an empty bag of chips lodged on his head, blinding him and muffling the sounds of annoyance coming from him.

Leo and Donnie stopped and looked up. She was bouncing around the walls very fast, even if she did not do much else.

"Can't we beat a single girl?!" Leo grunted.

"Geckos are predators of their ecosystem," Donnie was saying. "They have enhanced reflexes and strength, peripheral and nocturnal vision -" The girl jumped to the ceiling, where she remained, "...and they can crawl on walls."

Frantic, Mikey was fumbling with his T-phone. "I'm calling reinforceme -"

The communicator was taken out of his hand.

Donnie answered that with: "AND a long sticky, stretching tongue that they use to hunt insects." Mikey was shaking his hand frantically in disgust.

"Something else we should be looking out for?" asked Leo, rather sardonically, before being hit by something from behind.

"The whipping tail would be one," answered Donnie. "…That's one seriously overpowered reptile."

Raphael had recovered. "So much for not fighting," he said, not really bothered. In fact, he was a bit in a cloud, watching her move with that sort of strange and awkward sort of grace. It was a challenge, surely. She kept at the ceiling and walls, trying out for sticking to spaces that were out of reach.

"It's like some weird spider-woman mutant," Mikey commented, while Raphael snorted. "Yeah, like we couldn't climb up a wall ourselves…"

He put away his sai and cracked his knuckles, enjoying the idea of surprising her like that. He stepped on an opposite wall for support and jumped. She noticed him holding to the wall underneath. He came advancing towards her. She looked for a way to stop him. She opened her mouth –

And Raph suddenly had an elastic, long, sticky tongue tip on the side of his face.

It was enough to make him lose balance.

With an undignified yelp, he fell to the floor to his brothers… and slipped directly out of their grasp. Raph was once again on his ass. And he was once again, mortified. "Y-you – That's playing dirty!" Now wait until he—

"Where's she?" asked Donnie.

The question was well posed. They were on the lookout, but it was obvious she had crawled out of reach somewhere, seeking cover once more in the high dark corners of the sewers. Everything stilled. From somewhere there, in the dark, where they could only barely sense the movement of her tail swinging from side to side like a nervous cat.

"Erm," Leo started over all of the sudden, straightening up and dropping the handle of his swords, still sheathed, "Miss? We don't mean to hurt you - and we didn't mean to scare you either. We want to help."

"G-get back! Leave!" From a hidden position came the girl voice. "I-I was here first!"

"Technically, we can't," said Donnie. "We live in the sewers too."

"This is _my_ side of the sewers."

"Who died and made you Queen of the Sewers?" said Raph, "and something else -" he said, stepping forwards.

She came to sight suddenly – she had dropped from the wall, as if she had slipped. She was panting, hardly in the best of shapes, and staring at them guarded. His sai was now on a belt she seemed to have fabricated for herself, with scraps of other things. She looked ready to attack.

Leo tried again. "Miss! You don't have to do this! We don't want to fight you! Actually, we want to be your friends!"

She stared at them, still panting, maybe considered them, or maybe she was going to say something… Just as fast, and ever so subtly, she was suddenly alert and still. She turned, looking at the darkness behind her. She spared them a look.

And then spun around and started running, deeper into dark tunnels.

"C'mon, she's getting away!" called Raph, going after her. He was not going to let her get away that easy…

His older brother put a hand in front of him to stop him.

"What the – Leo!"

Leo put a finger to his lips signaling him to keep silent, and then pointed forwards.

They heard them coming before they saw the light from around the corner. There were _people_ up ahead. And not just any people…

"- _so there you are, folks. Monsters of the sewers? Another urban myth? You decide. I'm May Carrie and this is channel 6 News_."

They ducked behind a corner. "You got to be kidding me…" grunted Raphael.

He remembered. Before, she had looked as if she had just heard something. It had got to be this. It was the worst possible timing too, because, from the sudden distraction, he couldn't see her anymore.

"There are three of them," Leo whispered. Well, thanks Admiral Obvious! It was a cameraman, a guy holding the lights and…

"A girl anchor," commented Donnie.

"What about it?" Mikey asked.

"Er. Nothing. It just surprised me for some reason I can't explain…"

Raph was frantic, shell against the wall. Oh he could not believe this! It wasn't that uncommon to get the occasional visitor down here, yeah. But the sewers were a large territory, and those people usually stuck to areas _not_ right next door! _They _made sure of that.

And there came the order coming from behind. "Retreat."

"What?! But she's right here!" Raphael protested. "We're going to abandon her?!"

"She didn't want to come with us, Raph."

"And you think she's going to be better out there?" he asked, cynically. "What if that bunch gets her on tape?" Besides. She had his sai too! He wasn't going to let her get away with that?!

"She will be fine. We cannot risk being exposed."

"It's not like anyone dangerous would be looking for _her_, that we know of," Donnie completed. "_We're_ the ones who are being chased by assassins and crazy aliens."

"We just have to pass unnoticed," Raphael insisted. "We're ninjas! We do it all the time!"

"I don't know, bro," said Mikey. "This place is pretty cramped for any sweet ninja mojo."

"Face it, Raph. We need to let this go," said Donnie.

Raph was getting really agitated with all this. Just great. Even this much wouldn't go his way! Why were they are acting like a bunch of cowards?! And, what was she thinking, running towards a news –

Then he saw her: somehow she had gotten past the human crew, only a couple of feet away and crawling upside-down on the ceiling –

"That idiot is going to be _seen_!"

"And this other idiot is _following_…" Donnie said running after Raphael, along with his brothers.

He just had the impulse right that moment – threw all caution to the wind and sprinted forwards, throwing a smoke bomb in his wake. He only had to leap over the group to pass them. Ha. Easy peasy. See? 'Didn't even notice he was there. Well, probably. He didn't stop to check.

He thought he heard his older brother call out to him, some distance away. Raph brushed it aside. So Leo and the others were finally going to take this seriously, huh? Great. To be honest, he almost wished they wouldn't; they would just be getting in his way.

… and it had nothing to do with wanting it to be him that gets her. T-that is, _capture_ her. (Really!) He grunted to himself. He was letting his brothers get to his head. Anyways, Raph knew he made the right decision coming forwards. He knew this part of the sewers, and there were not many places she could go - only one turn ahead, no exit. He had her now.

The only corridor led to another of those big holes in the wall into a big swirling pool of… _sewer water_. No signs of her. Then he heard a swift motion sound at his right… There was nothing _at_ his right, except the opening on the wall that led to the water falls room, there's no way she'd be –

A body swung from up and inside the corridor where Raphael was, feet first. Which meant, Raph was again the recipient of a kick. He fended it off better this time, but was pushed back several meters. He looked up. He wondered if this girl had a fatal phobia of turtles as he saw her drop to the floor and start running back where he came, and Raph again was coming after her ("Oi, wait!").

Actually, there was something that had been bothering him in the back of his head. It was simply that he didn't know how to go about this. Should he tackle her, or would that be inappropriate? Or – would it be creepy to use a rope or…?

She shot out from the shadows and threw the sai in his direction.

"Hey! That's dangerous!" Raph groaned.

She went inside the nearest tunnel entrance. He turned the corner and saw her tail disappear inside a smaller drain passage up in the wall. He only needed two jumps to get there himself. It was a bit tight for him but, he managed. And reaching the other side, he came upon another place.

It was a big closed room, water at its center, no space for her to run or squirm through. She had to be here. He stood still and stayed alert for any movement or sound. He could almost sense her moving. He thought he heard her whimper. He readied to fight, in a sour happy mood. The anticipation of battle or whatever it was... It was making his blood pump. "Alright. Come at me, see what you find."

Something did come at him. It was long, swift, squishy, and it came for his head. He didn't even see the tail coming until it knocked him over and sideways.

He recovered quick, sai at the ready, still standing between her and the only exit. He smirked as he said to the silhouette in front of him, "Nice try. But – hey!" Her tail sent water Raph's way, and some got in his eyes; he was blinded for a second. "That was a cheap –"

There was silence and nothing on sight again. "Come out already, you coward." He heard something from above and threw the ninja stars on the general direction. He heard a hiss. And then felt the kick on his stomach, which he easily caught.

"Ha! That barely tickled."

He swung the figure around towards the nearest wall and let go. The water splashed around the place. And she barely missed landing on her face, which now turned to him, to glare. He returned the gesture with his most smug, grimmest look. "So, you had enough?"

For a minute at least, she just stayed like that there - her breathing hard, panting, and her drenched. It looked like she had hurt her back too. She seemed to have troubles just holding herself in her two legs, too feeble. "Ok, now that's just ridiculous. You sure you don't want to call uncle?" He stepped forwards but stopped when he saw the girl slip back, fall on her butt and, in her frenzy, push herself back against the wall behind with her feet after a failed attempt at standing up.

"Good job, slick toes. You have as much grace as an epileptic monkey."

She cowered against the wall, holding herself, staring at him but not moving. And she was, if possible, more wary of him as he uncrossed his arms. Now that Raph looked at her better… (That is, now he _could_ look at her better… No creepy subtext here.) She had a wide face, and the –some may say entrancing- color of her eyes, with the pattern on her head and face, made it look like she was glaring, but she actually looked pretty terrified.

That brought a funny feeling within him, but it still didn't overpower his elation. "Now that I finally have your attention, I'll start. First off, I'm _completely_ better at fighting than you."(He barely registered an earlier tension lifting.) "And I mean, really. I don't know what you think you're doing; you couldn't defeat me if you studied for ten years with those noodle arms. And you're completely exhausted too. You should just admit it and give it up." He was completely entitled to be smug too. "So, what is it going to be?"

She didn't move from her position, but her eyes started to look less frightened and more… strangely curious, in a frown.

"You're a bit of a self-complacent and unpleasant guy, aren't you?"

Raph blushed. That was presented as a deadpan and… had taken him by surprise. "And you're a stuck-up snob, aren't you." What's that?! Even after he defeated her, too. He should remind her that, yeah. "And stupid too, if you think you can fight trained martial artists by just jumping around walls. We weren't even trying to hurt you."

For a second time, she didn't look so scared any more. "Yeah, right, you expect me to believe that? I don't think so. You're all with weapons of some sort." She was… cheeky. Maybe the overload of _scare_ from the last hours had finally crashed her brain. "You're all with weapons, like those skinny guys in black jumping over roofs." Was she talking about robot Foot soldiers? "And what's with the stupid turtle get-up?"

Now Raph was pissed…

"Hey! I*am* a turtle, and it's our ninja gear and badge and we – Ack, why do I bother? What's your deal? You came into our house, and took our food."

Suddenly, she was looking at empty space with big, deer-caught-in-headlights eyes, lips tight shut. Raph started feeling a bit stupid about how he went about with this. He looked away, and rubbed the sore muscles in his neck, more out of anxiety than anything else. "Listen –"

"I just…" she began, "didn't know where to find food."

He rolled his eyes. "You mean, like a supermarket?" But okay, maybe he should cut her some slack. If she was here, it was probable there was some reason she couldn't go home. He immediately thought of a scared girl, a family that didn't recognize her and threw her out, and she hiding in the only place she knew of that would keep everybody away.

She cringed and her manner went back to brazen. "Ok, yeah. I'm sorry, but there are not many places a giant lizard can go to have a bite without the screaming... Even if the rest of the city has a lot of that going on nowadays... Except most of them are blobs and not really half animal mutants... That's what it looks like anyways..." She was a bit ramble-y, wasn't she?

He did get it. Them mutants couldn't exactly eat out. But still...

"So, you thought it would be okay to steal our food."

"I wasn't _stealing_ it. It'd have ended up on the floor anyways. _You're a pig eating_…" Did she think he didn't hear her because she was mumbling and looking away?!

"And you call _me_ the unpleasant one," he grumped.

She was still not looking at him, still glaring at nothing, probably acting brave, "I know you live down here too. I-I don't want to fight."

"You have a funny way to show that," said Raph.

She looked at him, emboldened, "Well, you were in my side of the sewers."

"If this is _your_ side of the sewers, what were you doing in mine - er, ours?"

She wouldn't answer that, but rather than scared, it was more like a pout in her expression. Raph started to feel awkward again. Now he wished the others were here with him.

He thought his brothers were right behind him…

* * *

In fact, what happened is that Leo did a similar leap over the human group, and stole the camera from the crew before they could film them with it. He had landed behind them, Mikey and Donnie on the other side.

"Turtles!" One of them cried out.

"Sorry. We'll return this to you. We don't want troubles or anything," said Leo, putting the camera down.

Mikey himself was already at it, "Yeah! It's alright, bros. We're cool. We just need to pass through."

"Erm, guys…?" Donnie started all of the sudden, pointing at them. "Why're they smiling all grotesquely…?"

"Dude..." Mikey said, now completely freaked out. "You should be asking why they are growing!"

Leo, under the growing, now-deformed shadows of the news crew,

"Oh no, this is bad..."

* * *

They had stayed in that weird, uneasy silence for too much of a while for Raphael's nerves. He was just standing there, awkwardly non-talkative. Fighting he could do. Talking? He wasn't good at talking. Sure if his brothers were here, they would know what to say. Besides, she was staring at him, oddly inquisitive, a little too much for comfort.

He grunted at himself and rubbed his temples. This was ridiculous, they couldn't stay like this. There was at least something he could say, right? Don't give it more importance than it has.

"So, what's your name?" he asked.

Her expression tensed immediately. Then frowned, as if trying to glare at the floor. She pressed her lips shut.

"What? Bugs got your tongue?"

She looked away, and did nothing; stayed silent. "Hey, don't ignore me –" She cowered further against the wall, hugging herself, and now had her head on her arms. He thought she might be crying. Raph felt a pang in his chest he remembered feeling earlier that week. How come she was so scared of him?

"…Fine. If you don't want to tell me, suit yourself. C'mon, we're going."

He took out his T-phone. He better tell Leo and the others. Meanwhile, the mutant was suddenly eyes wide, shrinking further into a ball against the wall in frozen terror, watching him. "Oh no no no, no. I don't think so. See this over here? This is my _I'm-not-moving-from-here_ place. I _like_ this place. I don't have to _move_ from it."

Raph decided: she was a mumbling idiot. Well, at least she wasn't crying. He went back to his T-phone, looking for Leo's contact info.

"What're you doing?" he heard her ask.

"Calling my brothers."

Their fearless leader was going to be insufferable about earlier… He dialed, but Leo didn't pick up. That was odd. He tried Mikey but stopped after the first ring. Mikey never remembered to set the phone to vibrate, and if they were… no, he was being paranoid. He tried April's phone next.

"Hey, Raph. What's up?"

"April. Listen –"

He had to stop because he was too surprised to see lizard-girl right next to him, looking over his shoulder at the T-phone.

"Hey! You found the girl!" said April from over the T-phone, having seen her apparently – and _she_ too saw her and stared, fixedly.

"Yeah. But that's not the reason I'm calling. Tell me, are Leo and the others back yet?"

"No, they aren't here." April's expression changed to worry. "There's nothing wrong, right?"

"I don't know. We split up and I was expecting them to show up by now, but they completely bailed on me."

"O-okay, I'm calling too. I'll call you back –"

_"- Is that your friend?"_

Raph turned to his current, scaly companion, feeling an inexplicable impulse to close the T-phone, as in, not let her see him having any communication to another girl. (Which was stupid, in more ways than one, and yes he knew that!) "Erm, yes."

She raised a hand tentatively or shyly, as if to wave at the screen. Has she never seen a human before? There was nothing there, by the way, but she was bizarrely on tip toes about April appearing any minute. The T-phone rang. Her eyes flew open.

"Yeah, April," he greeted right away.

"Raph, I can't get through to Donnie, b-but I'm sure everything is okay. They could be in stake out and can't answer, right?"

"Yeah…"

His eyes narrowed, though. Raphael doubted they were still with that news crew. Sure, Leo would answer any other time, unless it blew their cover or something. But that only meant…

"April? It might be nothing but," he said in a tone that thought was aloof enough. "Do you have their coordinates? Just to be safe." He got the impression April was trying to act brave so he won't worry, and he needed a straight answer.

"Sure. Wait up, I'm getting Donnie's computer."

"I'll wait –"

He barely registered movement from behind before he felt the characteristic crack followed by the brilliant ash cover of a smoke bomb egg shroud his whole range of vision. He was suddenly on guard, dropped the T-phone and readied his sai waiting for an attack. The smoke cleared but the only thing he saw was an empty sewer room. Too empty.

"Hey –" he tried calling out, but he didn't even know her name. He felt worried for a minute, before a less affable determination seized him, fuelling the distrust-o-meter. Raphael frowned. Why was he worrying about some strange girl? His brothers should be the ones he should worry about.

He took the T-phone from the floor and called, "April?"

"Hey, I'm here," said April, returning to the screen. "Listen, the GPS tracking app is showing you under East Road. But the others are all the way in Greenpoint." She frowned. "That's a long way for straying apart –"

He closed the T-phone. He knew it. Something was wrong. Darn it. It could only have been when he split from them earlier. He stalked forwards without saying another word, towards the exit, mind buzzing. He got back into the tunnels, then rushed all the way back to where the news crew had been. There was nothing there, but… the stone passageways were cracked all over. Something – something _big_ – had had a fight here. There was denting of weapons on the walls. And something else.

A T-phone lying on the floor…


	4. The One with the Attitude

**A/N: Do not own. (R)Nickelodeon, Ciro Nieli, Joshua Sternin and J.R. Ventimilia.**

**I'm so boooooored. Hiatus! Why hiatus! I started writing this from last hiatus, you know. I was all, hiatus is no more! …Somehow I know I jinxed it the moment I said it… btw, I have understood Mondo Gecko is going to appear in TMNT in this season. (Wee!) My only problem now is that I was going to have him as a character in this fanfic, with its own origins story. It will probably clash with cannon now… Also, I was planning to update once every week. This is coming a lot slower than I anticipated. Maybe hiatus will end faster than I will update… I have mixed feelings about that, now that I already planned and wrote over 10 chapters of this…**

**All in all, what do you think? (Mona Lizard is coming out a bit Mary Sueish? I intend to correct that. God knows Mary Sues bore me… ) I like to have second person opinions. I know I'll start begging for them by the next chapter comes out. Also, expect more Karai and Splinter plots in later chapters, probably the next one. And/or Mutagen Man.**

**It's still all about Salty Donatello.**

* * *

**Chapter Three**: The One with the Attitude

.

He stared at it. The T-phone surrounded by debris.

The sight did it for him. He felt real dread. Raph hit the wall next to him to the point he thought he hurt his knuckles. He would do that, but he was more scared than angry. He was too stupid. This was all his fault. All because he acted rashly. If he hadn't insisted in going after the girl, hadn't gone even though Leo called it off, hadn't left them without looking back…

A T-phone ringtone began to sound. It wasn't his; it was the one on the floor. He cringed, glaring at the wall again, wishing to ignore the surge of pain _that_ brought. No point answering; it was probably April trying to contact the others. He needed a second to calm himself anyways, to think rationally and to feel his legs respond again. Then he heard the ringtone sound stop, and her voice –

"Hello? Oh. It's the girl from before!"

_"Oh. It's you," _April's voice came over the communicator._ "Why're *you* in Donnie's phone?_"

"What're you doing here?" Raph said, stalking towards the lizard mutant holding his brother's T-phone and looking at the screen like she had found an old friend.

She ridiculously hid the T-phone behind her back; from her expression she must have realized how stupid she looked. "What? It wasn't like you were picking up…" She talked in a sort of slurry deadpan – (Why was he noticing this, wasn't he concerned with more important things right now?! Don't be an idiot, Raph.)

The mutant held the T-phone closer to her defensively and still had the gall to glare back. Meanwhile, April said awkwardly from the speakers, "_It's you, er… what was your name again –_"

"_Is that the mutant? Let me see._" She was interrupted by another voice that came from somewhere off the screen, and then a boy, who seemed to be missing a couple of front teeth, appeared there. "_Nice!_ _Skink nostrils!_" April's image came forth again, "_Is Raph with you? That, huh, turtle boy from before._"

"If you can call him that…" There was the sass again… "Yeah, I'm with the mean guy now, the one with the butt-hurt unfriendly attitude. But, hey, at least he's not trying to murder me right now. So I cannot complain. But, yeah, it's all very weird. I mean, there were these other three big turtles –"

"Sorry, is my family crisis in the way of your mingling?"

There was a dense pause with Raph alone unaffected, as he kneeled to look at the rubble trying to come up with an idea of what took place here, but he couldn't find anything that gave him a clue! He took his own T-phone. He didn't have time for this. That's right. He had his brothers to look for. It didn't matter what, he had to do something.

April was calling out from the screen, "_Raph!_ _Listen, I know what you're thinking. I-it might not be like that at all! Don't do anything rash, I have a bad feeling –_"

"What happened to the other ones?" the girl besides him looked somewhere to her right.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out." And _what_ was he going to do exactly? They were just in front of him before, then just up and vanished, and he didn't do squat about it. He didn't realize because he was hot in pursuit of –

He couldn't help glaring at the girl, who blinked and then backed away, glaring back with distrust and – what's that? A karate pose? He rolled his eyes and glared at the T-phone instead, just for the sake of glaring at something. Without Donnie, he was useless with it.

He put the phone away just as she spoke again, "So what happened to your family?" She looked awkward, like she wasn't sure if she should be sympathetic or not.

"They're gone, and I don't talk as if you care now! You have brought nothing but trouble."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she bit back, affronted.

"It means that, if it wasn't for _you_, my brothers wouldn't be in danger. They're probably captured or worse. If it hadn't taken so long to get you to stop jumping all around the place…. I don't need more distractions getting in the way!" Somehow, this was all her fault. It was bad enough having to deal with the Kraang, the Foot and whatever was out there to now have to take care of crazy-hysteric girl mutants who just… got in the way! "And you –"

She was startled out of listening, now paralyzed staring at the darkness of an adjacent tunnel. "Did you hear that?! I thought I heard…" She was gasping from fright and striking a pose, all jumpy from the sound of her feet on a puddle.

Raph raised an eyebrow. "You're a scaredy-cat , aren't you?"

"I've been chased around since the early morning by four giant, insane-looking turtles. I'm a bit altered, alright?!" She had been eyeing him when she said insane. Her breathing had turned husky and she was holding herself but she still put some venom in that one. "What were you playing at anyways? You say you're ninja and just throw dangerous things at people."

"You were throwing dangerous stuff too!"

"You started it!"

"I did n… You were stealing from us! I was entitled to throw whatever I want at you."

"That's not how the justice system works."

"Well, I'm not the Justice System."

And what was the deal with this girl? She had just disappeared on him, now she was back?! Why? He couldn't trust her. For all Raph knew, this had all been a trap to distract him and to draw them out so somebody could capture his brothers.

Yeah. He couldn't be sure what side she was on… "So I'm chased around and it's my –"He idly had the notion of sound coming from Donnie's phone, which he thought might be April, before it dawned on him, "– fault. Wait. I have another call – Hey!" lizard girl protested when Raph took the T-phone from her. A rush of emotion passed through him from only the number display, and a better one with the face he saw –

"Donnie!" Wasn't he a sight for sore eyes!

"_Raph? The_ -" the communication broke for a second, "_what's with all this static?_" and then it was cut out completely. "Donnie!" he called onto the T-phone, pointlessly.

But, they were fine. His brothers were fine. He leaned -dropped- on a wall and breathed out. He could feel himself decompress from all that worry he was feeling just before. He relished the relief that washed over him, and a happy feeling he thought it might be the first time he ever felt. He almost forgot about the girl mutant looking on some meters away.

He dialed, moving like an anxious cat as he waited for an answer on the other side of the line, riding on a renewed feeling of hope. The face that greeted him was not the one he expected.

"Hey, Raph! How's your date going?"

"Casey, put April back on. Didn't your parents tell you to respect other's belongings?"

"Actually… it's his phone. I borrowed it," an April looking guilty said, coming into the picture. That explained the lack of corny ringtone before…

"Yeah, I let her borrow it because it was an emergency. Because I'm a good guy that way. Wait, I'll call you with April's!"

Raph threw his to the girl without batting an eyelid. "There. Knock yourself out."

"Who's _toothless_?" Raphael was sure she saw her make a face when _toothless_ came into the phone she answered. ("_Hey, the girl-mutant!_") So she didn't like Casey as much as she liked April, huh.

The face of April staring back at him said, "She sounds friendly."

"Maybe if you're human."

"She sorts of reminds me of someone..."

He talked as he walked away, "You two can chat later. First tell me about my brothers. You said they were at Greenpoint, right?" Greenpoint was southeast.

"Wait, Raphael. You shouldn't go alone. Come back to the lair and we –"

"Oh no way Jose. I'm _going_," he answered gravely.

April contested, with some temper of her own, "You don't know what took them! You don't even know how to use the tracking app function in the T-phone!"

"You can guide me. And no offense, but you'd be dead weight anyways."

"Look. I saw the map before; there's something strange, things that are impossible, and you can't sort this out on your own! At least wait for Casey and I –"

"Is this the tracking app function?"

The girl mutant was holding the phone up next to her head for Raph to see, showing a beeping signal from a sewer-like map in the screen.

He closed communications without so much as an idle notion of April protesting it ("Raph, wait –"), all the while staring at the girl, with a smirk.

* * *

April stared at the black T-phone screen and said a string of words Casey didn't expect to come from her in a million years. He got it. She was a bit troubled right now.

"Son of a motherless goat! He cut communications! Why can't that stubborn guy ever listen!?"

"You know there's no stopping him when he's like that. Heck, if I were him, I'd be freaking out as well." And he kind of was. Not as much as April, though. He found her making calls on Donnie's desk and mumbling, biting on her nails. Then she lunged for him ("Casey, lend me your phone!") and started calling Donnie blabbing "- maybe yours will work…"

He would be upset but, huh, well, it wasn't like he was jealous…

"Shoot. I thought I could make Raph calm down and wait for us there with the tracking app excuse."

"Sorry," said Casey, looking edgy. "I kinda slipped to the mutant girl we were going to try find the others with that in the T-phones. And, huh, I thought it was sudden that she stopped the call – I said I was sorry!" he blurted because she was glaring at him.

"This is bad…" She rubbed her temples. "It's not like he wouldn't go either way. I'm just worried he faces this alone."

Casey knew April had been lying to Raph on the phone so she could make her own move. She was worried alright. If the other three couldn't take on whatever took them…

"So? What now, red?"

She stared at him. "You know _what_."

* * *

They had been silently creeping in the dark all the way to the other side of the channel. The girl was coming after him, at her own pace, looking around.

"You -! Girl - whatever your name is! Hurry up, will you? For a lizard, you're slow as heck." He stopped to let her catch up. They had to move carefully. He just wished she could _move carefully_ faster.

There was practically nothing but the sound of footsteps and an almost steady ruffling. She asked while walking, "So, when you say _brothers _you mean, actually, your _brothers_…?"

"What else would I mean?"

"And you're _turtles_," she said, as if it was significant.

"Figured that one on your own, didn't you?" He rolled his eyes. "C'mon. The fastest we can get out this tunnel and not out in the open, the safest we'll be." Well, he did tell her to stay close and trend with caution. It was an open space. It was easier to be ambushed. But really, this girl could scare of her own shadow.

He couldn't complain, though. He had practically dragged the girl to help without even asking. Well, at least she didn't look as scared as before. His brothers had been right. She wasn't looking for a fight. She was just hungry… and a bit senseless. "And here I thought I had met my match."

"What?"

"Nothing!" Raphael mumbled, walking a couple of steps ahead without looking at her, in ponderation."You never told me your name."

Silence. She tensed and acted distracted. "I _know_ you heard me." He narrowed his eyes in suspicious. "Is there a reason you _won't_ tell us your name?" Another Shredder daughter maybe? Wouldn't that be a laugh…. Another silent moment passed and Raph snapped, "Hey! I'm trying to be nice here."

"_What_ part of what you've been doing was supposed to be '_nice_'? The chasing me part, the threatening me part, when you ganged up on me…?" she enumerated, holding herself rather than crossing her arms but equally as snide.

"Well, you weren't exactly stopping to chat, were you?" He grumbled. "Then, what am I supposed to call you? Lizard lady? Lizzie?"

But her attention was again on the dark tunnels, "Should we be waltzing here like this?"

"I don't have time to go all ninja-stealth on those bastards. Besides, with you making all that noise, what's the point?" He stopped and gave out a sigh long and pained. "Seriously, at least drop the potato chips…"

That was followed by the sound of rapid munching and her stuffed cheeks. "What?! I'm not _wasting_."

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard his own phone ringtone. April had sent him a text: _'Don't take it personally. I think she's just awkward. Why don't you try talking to her?'_

Somehow, the state of embarrassment and the color of his face went up several levels with this message. What did April think this was?! A play date?! And, it wasn't like he hadn't tried to have a decent conversation with her. But she was just… well…

They reached a room they couldn't advance through – not traditionally. The exit they needed was in a superior level, and no stair at sight. "This has to be what April talked about. What a worry-wart," said Raph, putting his weapons away. "Time to giddy up."

He started climbing the wall, like any ninja training. After a couple of meters, he called. "Well? Are you coming?"

She was still pissed at him, he could tell. 'Wasn't his fault she was not the only one who could climb walls. 'Guess you're not all that special, huh? Next thing he knew, he had her right next to him, a cocky smile on her face. They shared a competitive sort of look. They climbed. It didn't took too much for both of them to realize this wasn't just a climb, but a race, a challenge, to see who would get there first.

Raphael offered a hand to her at the edge when he reached the top. She glared at him. "I can climb out on my own."

She did, and started leaving on her own too, ignoring him. Raph followed after her. "Miss Stuck up..."

He started behind her and kicked something on his way out. It was a metal plaque, the inscription on it smudged so he could only read the letters "-A.R.P.A."

* * *

About seven or so minutes before…

"Donnie, how is it coming?"

"Just a minute! This isn't exactly high tech," said one Donatello, tinkering with cage lock while Leonardo and Michelangelo kept watch.

"I don't get it," Leo was saying. "Where're we? This isn't like a Kraang prison."

"It has a lot of Kraang, though. That blob-people like April's fake mom..."

"Yeah, I know. But, since when the Kraang have iron bars, like a common dungeon? Donnie, how're you doing?"

Donnie sighed. "You know, when it's ready I'll tell you it's – It's ready!"

"Alright. First thing first." They needed to get their stuff back. Luckily, they saw where that monster put –or expelled, as the case might be, since that thing seemed to use its own body for storage– it. They located and retrieved their respective weapons fast enough in a big unguarded storage room. The shells of Kraang stuff leaned against the walls around them, their own belongings were lying down on a wooden table that didn't match a Kraang hideout.

"Here, Donnie," Leo had picked one of two T-phones that were on the table. "You call Raph. Tell him to meet us at the eastern side plant. I'm checking things ahead."

He moved further in, sword at the ready, and was lost from sight among broken pieces of Kraang machinery. Donnie started to make the call, "Raph? The guys and I – Huh… Can you hear me? _What's with all this static _–" He stopped. "And now this?! Well, I'll be a turtle's –"

"What's wrong, D?" called Mikey, joining him.

"The communication was cut off. It's never happened before! It's as if this underground area acted like a bunker of sorts…" Or maybe it was a consequence of human action against the Kraang during the last invasion? Like, radiation? No, don't be paranoid, Donatello….

"The coast is clear. This way," Leo called out, having just come back. They moved out in silence, through two surprisingly unguarded corridors. The lack of Kraang and whatever other thing there was lucky but disconcerting. Leo was looking around, a frown in his face. "What is this place? I don't recognize this part of the sewers."

Donnie consulted the T-phone. "That's weird… The GPS map shows us in an impossible place of the sewer system."

"But this is still the sewers, right?" asked Mikey.

"It looks like we're underground but –"

"Ugh. It smells like Raph's sweaty socks in here. That old smell, you know," Mikey added.

Donatello startled. "That's it! I know where we are! I heard about this some time ago: smuggling tunnels, dating back to the foundation of a town. Many cities have fables like these – I can't believe these have never been discovered till now!"

"For how long have these been here?" Leo asked, touching the moldy walls.

Donnie considered it. "It could be any time between 600 years ago to World War II. They could have been here since always! All this time, under our very nose! I don't know since when they have been operational, though."

"So… we're over the sewers or under them?" Mikey asked, confused.

"I think we're directly below them."

"That means the others won't find us so easy," Leo thought, frowning.

* * *

They took another turn and quickened their pace at the entrance of next tunnel. Or at least, Raphael did. The girl was coming right behind.

"So what happened back there? With you sending that smoke bomb at me."

They passed by a strange sight when they went around the next corner. The wall was broken down, and so was the floor in the other room, and the resulting hole went on into darkness.

"Oh. I... that bomb thing... I thought it was an egg."

"Yeah, I know it looks like an egg but that doesn't explain... wait. Did you try to eat it?!" She blushed and looked away. "Wow. 'Gotta tell you, 'didn't take you for a crazy gobbler."

She made a face. "Well… I'm hungry, you know! Thanks to you, I lost almost all of my food."

Raphael's reaction was hysterical, literally. "It was _our_ food! You stole it!"

"Well, now neither of us can use it, can we?"

"Hey, don't compare us to you! We never stole anything. _You're_ the thief!"

"Yeah? And where did you get all that? I bet _you_ stole it to begin with."

"What?! We didn't steal it!"

"Then what, you _borrowed_ from someone's home? I bet somewhere there's a little kid wondering where his Fruity Loops are. Aren't you a little old for those?"

Ok. Those were Mikey's, first of all...

"If you must know, we have friends who get them for us."

"And who're these 'friends'? Smuggling sewer rats?"

That struck a chord.

"You know, I'd love to see things from your point of view but I can't seem to get my head that far up my –"

He stopped on his tracks.

"Wait. This isn't the right way. Let me see the map."

He took the T-phone. Yes, this was definitely not the way. "What the shell? You took a wrong turn! You're supposed to be the navigation help!"

She took the phone back to peer at it. "Oh. I-I didn't realize –"

"How could you not realize! You only have been glued to the phone all day like a rabid teenager with a new toy. I'm starting to doubt you even really want to help."

She was avoiding his eyes. "It's just, I see better in the dark than in the light."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know… _better_. You know how things blur sometimes…"

He blinked. "Help me understand this. I've been following directions from a gal that's blind as a bat!?"

"Okay so I'm a bit short-sighted! Can you get out of my face for a minute? It's not like I knew things were going to turn this way."

"Yeah, who needs common sense anyways!" Raphael grunted.

"It's – I usually manage. Wait. I'll call April -"

He grabbed her hand around the T-phone. "Don't bother."

He started turning, grumbling, and walking in an angry gait away from the girl. Then something caught his eye. Light. Something was moving on their right. Raph grabbed his companion covering her mouth and dragged her around a corner. He ignored her muffled protests. Something was coming their direction. Three sets of steps, one light. His eyes flew open. It was the new screw from before.

He clenched his teeth. He released the girl ("What're you –"), and came out behind them. "Hey! You!" He would ask them about what happened back there. He just needed one of them; the rest could scatter around for all he cared.

The three of them turned around. Raph stopped. The woman's right hand was a gloo-y thing. They were mutants! And they were all suddenly smiling weirdly when they saw him, to the sound in unison of "Turtles".

Raphael smiled a dark, smug smile. "Perfect." He grabbed his sai and started stalking forwards. They were starting to twist, mutate, but he didn't care about it. "You're going to tell me where you took my brothers!" He gave a war-cry and ran forwards.

He landed feet first on the face of the guy in the middle - his head made of goo splashed on the floor. 'Slammed a sai-holding fist on the one in the right. Similarly, his first went through the goo, leaving this one headless as well. But that didn't stop the rest of the body from trying to grab him. He jumped out of reach, just as something shifted behind his head. He turned to see the lizard-girl tackle the goo-woman.

It only dawned on him now that he couldn't take them on with lizard girl here, who obviously never fought someone before and was now looking as helpless as a bug in a spider web, the goo of the woman covering her like a sticky, glowing net. Because apparently this was not Raphael's day. The two other headless guys were walking zombie-like towards him. He should have waited for April…

He didn't stop to dwell on it much; he grabbed her arm, and ran. He was going the way they came, and turned and stopped. He recognized the place.

…And yes, he could have thought this through…

He heard them coming. Without really much choice, or much of a plan, he threw smoke bombs in all directions. It did occur to him that both of the headless guys were already blind and it didn't make much of a difference for them, so this plan sucked. He dragged the girl behind him to shield her. The monster rose from the smoke, twice as big, and even _he_ had to admit… He wasn't going to win this.

From the smoke came a glow-y goo darkened, charred tentacle that grabbed the girl from the waist. If the girl hadn't had her feet and hands glued to the floor like she could for being a lizard, she would have been taken, instead of just slowly being dragged back, flapping her limbs. He cut the goo bindings with shurikens and kunais. "Get back!" he called before jumping back himself.

But the girl wasn't moving. She stood there, still as stone – possibly more out of exhaustion or fear of losing her balance again than any attempt to be brave, but at this rate she was about to be struck by the monster. That idiot, she might as well have given up! Raph came running in mad rage and rammed into the thing with all his strength, throwing it onto the opposite wall, it rolling into the hole in the ground. It tried to hold itself, to climb or crawl out, but finally it fell inside. Raph, besides his fuming mad turtle self, turned to her. "Don't go dying on my watch, you idiot!"

They were both panting, taking a moment to try and catch their breath. He frowned. She was on her butt again, holding her knees looking terrified. She was mumbling something. "_Sure. Giant amorphous slime people! Tell me that we're fighting those, now why don't you…_" She was cheeky even when freaking out.

He punched the floor.

The action drew a fright gasp from his companion. "W-what's wrong with you?"

"We're late! We should have reached the place by now. It's all because of you!"

"What did I ever do?!"

"Oh, nothing much, you only got us lost and distract me and – you do nothing but slow me down! You don't even see where the heck you're going!"

She scowled. "I'm not the one who charged at that thing!"

"We wouldn't have found those guys if you hadn't got us side-tracked! Or even meet them if we hadn't been following you!"

"You didn't have to come after me!" She frowned defensively. "We're going the right way if we turn around now. You could drop the beef."

"I'm dropping nothing until my brothers are out of the danger _you_ brought them to!"

"You know, I don't need your attitude."

"Well, I don't need you!"

She startled and returned the hostility and determination in his gaze, "Fine," until she finally averted hers, "I'm leaving."

"Wha, wai..." Raph started, staring at her walking away. He growled. "Fine! One less thing I've to worry about! I'm going to do this much faster without you off my shell." He started a couple of angry steps the other way, still trying to hold himself together. "I'm not waiting for her, _or_ anyone." She could do whatever she wanted.

He had only a moment of vacillation. He chastised himself from wanting to turn back.

No surprise there. She was gone.

What did he need her for anyways? He was faster without her and -

Wait. Wait a minute. That thief!

He dialed while he stomped forwards. The girl's face came up in the screen, looking quickly disinterested. "Oh, it's you."

"Give me back my T-phone, you lousy minx!" He saw her drop from the roof a little distance away. He jumped and started stalking towards her, growling and looking like a humanoid bulldozer turtle. There was a blur and the snap of the backstabbing tail. He felt the sting seconds after, glowering from the dark shadows where the hit had landed him. She meant to bolt back towards the tunnel. His hand grabbed a slim green ankle.

They ended up in a bundle on the floor, with her pushing his grumbling face away with one hand. "The tracking app! My brothers –" She threw the T-phone on his face – it hurt. When he looked up, he saw her tail disappear inside a tunnel and he just watched on. He stood up. This was it. He was alone in this. Somehow he knew it couldn't be another way… but it still annoyed him.

* * *

(Other five minutes ago…)

They went further into the tunnels, and it was quite reasonable to think, with equally eerie feelings in the pits of their stomach, until they came across a door there. They readied for whatever was to the other side of it.

Michelangelo was beaming.

"Hey, think we could use these to play hide-and-seek? Raph won't ever be able to find us!"

"That's nice and all but I'm more concerned with what we're going to do right now. And I _know_ I'm gettng repetitive but -we need to be _quiet_."

Even if they stepped inside, it wasn't clear where they were yet. It looked like another storage room. "Which one is the right way?" Leo asked Donnie.

Donatello pondered this, looking at the map in his T-phone screen. "I can tell you the general direction of the lair but, without a clear knowledge of our surroundings, I do not know if there's any access to the sewers or the surface there. We're travelling blind."

"But we can still move in that general direction. Let's do that. Donnie, you take the lead."

"Wow," said Mikey, getting them to turn their attention where he was looking. "Dude. What did this to the Kraang?!"

Turning a corner what they found could only be described as the ruins of what had once been a large Kraang ship, taken apart and cut for size inside a room too small.

"At least we don't have to fight it," said Donnie, secretly worried.

Something came crashing down on them from a hole they only now noticed at the ceiling. A giant blob thing.

"Not again!" cried out Donnie.

* * *

**A/N: …I'm making another cut here because the chapter is too long, again.**

**ANNOUNCEMENT: I've officially opened the tumblr askmonalizard **(can't post links here so just google) for interacting with a drawn version of the character, for those interested in this story. I'd be more than flattered if you dropped by.

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*** Mona Lisa first appeared in the episode "Raphael meets his match." The line "I thought I have met my match" is a direct reference to that episode… Sorry, I thought I was hilarious… Ignore me.**


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